gory, in a realistic way.

Rating: 8/10 (13 April 2004)

This is profoundly not a horror movie, never in Danny Boyle's life would he tie his films down to any notions of genre or audience expectation. Most audience members expect a true genre movie, but this was not Boyle's goal. Some don't find the film scary enough, but do they not find the idea of being isolated and practically powerless in a nation overrun by a virus nobody can stop slightly disturbing? Or would they prefer Arnie to come out of a bush with a machine gun and obliterate some zombie scum? the disurbing thing about this film is that it seems so real, for example, it takes ages to kill a zombie because the survivors are not superheroes. it is shot like any social-realism film, like Boyle's Trainspotting it remains as true to the actual nature of humanity as possible, even though it discusses zombies and post-apocalyptic Britain. Sorry, it's not dawn of the dead, but it is real and in that respect it is disturbing. Perhaps the American audience would also benefit from background information, like all the havoc that viruses like BSE and Foot and Mouth have caused in the UK in order to find the film more disturbing? It may suffer from being a bit too culturally exclusive, but this did not hinder my enjoyment. I found it cool and wouldn't object to seeing it over and over.